It has become fashionable to place motivational posters on the walls in the companies. Depending on the nature of the organisation, this can be seen in two ways; a propaganda campaign by the management to make the workers work harder or an attempt to remind the workers of certain values held by the organisation.

With the first view the posters may look nice but usually do little to lift moral, educate or motivate. Various formats are used but usually those that have a generic picture with some bland slogan are the ones that are despised the most. They usually have a dark background, a central picture and a slogan at the bottom. Most often these slogans are single words, such as “Prosperity”, “Motivation”, “Ambition” or “Stability”. Perhaps, the idea is that by seeing “Motivation” (and some random picture) on the wall every day, people become more motivated!

Well, you need to make a bit more of an effort than that to motivate people.

Posters which are used in the workplace to remind us of the organisation’s values are often not very effective. They might be noticed the first time seen on the wall but it is then filtered out the same way we filter out those motivational posters or intrusive advertisements.

Both of these views seem to be problematic although the general ideal of being repeatedly reminded of something is a good one. In fact, productivity gurus have been recommending using this technique for years and if implemented well they can have great effects.

This exercise helps the delegates to examine our changing world and provides an opportunity to discuss what it means for future. You can use this as part of a change management course or to run it for staff who are subjected to a change management programme.

This exercise helps delegates to understand the importance of several key principles, such as “Parkinson’s Law” as well as managing their performance in the face of change or increasingly challenging environments. It is also useful for teamwork, decision making, leadership and creativity. You can use this exercise to teach “Parkinson’s Law” in a time management course.

In this exercise, delegates explore the implications of stress and how it affects their workflow. In 1936, Hans Selye carried out extensive research on stress. He found that the body goes through 3 stages during distress:

The body is alarmed

The body’s resistance is increased

The duration of the distress causes exhaustion.

These three stages are present in any stressful activity. If we want to get over our stress and reduce its impact, it is ideal to know which one of these is causing most of the problem so we can take steps to improve it.